Friday, January 04, 2019

CLEMSON, S.C. (BP) -- Despite being a big-time college football player headed to the NFL, Miguel Chavis was on a path to destruction. Self-centered and vile. Hedonistic and drunk. A tough brute who partied hard and pursued every fleeting pleasure he could think of.

You name it, and Chavis, during his early years as a defensive tackle at Clemson, was probably guilty of it.

"I was living in the flesh for 3 1/2 years and was sexually immoral and addicted to pornography, and was really just captured and captivated and enslaved by people's opinions of me," said Chavis, now the defensive player development coach at Clemson. Read More

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (BP) -- This year's Ouachita Baptist University Tigers football team was the winningest in the school's history. And while college football is a big deal in the South, where many enjoy cheering on their favorite team regardless of the record, it is especially nice to cheer for a winner -- on and off the field.

The Tigers went undefeated in the Great American Conference -- winning the conference for the second year in a row -- and won their first contest during the NCAA Division II playoffs before losing in the quarterfinals to Ferris State University, a school with a student enrollment nearly 10 times that of Ouachita's.

While many small Baptist colleges and universities do not have football programs, Ouachita's dates back to the late 19th century. The first "Battle of the Ravine," the nickname for Ouachita's longstanding rivalry game with cross-highway rival Henderson State University, dates back to 1895. Read More

"Who's Your One?" encourages every Southern Baptist to intentionally build a relationship with one person over the course of 2019, share the Gospel and invite that person to trust Christ as Lord and Savior.

"Associations have always served as a valuable partner in cooperation, mobilizing churches together," Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., told Baptist Press. "Our own local [Yates Baptist] Association, under the leadership of Marty Childers, provides a great structure for church revitalization, racial reconciliation and partnership evangelism in our city. It only seemed natural for every association in the country to work together." Read More

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Contributions to Southern Baptist Convention national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee in December were 4.50 percent below the projected budget for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. And they were 0.19 percent above the amount received during the same period last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee Interim President and Executive Vice President D. August Boto. Read More

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has urged the Arizona Supreme Court to protect the freedom of two artists to operate their business in keeping with their Christian beliefs.

The ERLC, joined by eight other parties, filed a friend-of-the-court brief Dec. 20 requesting the state's justices reverse a lower court's support for a Phoenix ordinance requiring Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski to use their painting and calligraphy business for same-sex weddings. The owners of Brush & Nib Studio in Phoenix contend the law forces them to communicate a message in violation of their faith.

Oral arguments before the Arizona high court are scheduled for Jan. 22. The case is one of several in the courts that involve the clash between the legal status of same-sex marriage and the rights of business owners who have declined to offer their services for gay weddings. Read More

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (Monday-Friday) international news service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers to produce BP News.